Ocean Avenue
by coolmonsterfighter
Summary: Willow/Tara summery one-shot.


_There's a place off Ocean Avenue where I used to sit and talk with you_

_We were both 16 and it felt so right_

_Sleeping all day and staying up all night, staying up all night_

_There's a place on the corner of Cherry Street_

_We would walk on the beach and knock at feet_

_We were both 18 and it felt so right_

_Sleeping all day and staying up all night_

Tara stopped singing along with the radio and looked over at her girlfriend with a smile. The two of them were both just sitting in the living room working on a few things for their respective jobs with the music on as background noise. This song caught the blonde's attention though.

"That sounds like us when we were in college. Remember all of our late night walks on the beach?" She asked, her mind immediately flashing back to that early stage of their relationship.

"Bye Buff! Bye Riley!" Willow called after her best friend and her boyfriend. "Have fun!"

The redhead shut the door behind her and flopped onto her bed, glancing at the clock and seeing it was almost 10. She picked up the phone and mindlessly punched in the familiar digits of her girlfriend's number. After a couple of rings she heard Tara's voice and grinned instantly.

"Hey you. Riley just came over to take Buffy out on a date so I'm totally free now. Wanna do something?"

"That sounds great. I was just thinking about you actually," Tara admitted.

"Thinking good things I hope?"

"Of course, Willow. I'm always thinking good things about you. Now did you have anything in mind that you wanted to do?"

"Can we just go to our usual beach? I love when we go there. Your eyes look so pretty in the moonlight."

The blonde was now blushing furiously on the other end of the phone.

"The beach sounds nice. I'll meet you outside the student center and we'll walk there okay? See you in 15?"

"See you soon, sweetie," Willow replied before clicking her phone off.

She quickly threw on her blue swimsuit in case they decided to go in the water and then put her brown sundress over top of it. She reached up and tied the halter of the dress before giving herself a once over in the mirror.

"Shoes, shoes, shoes. I need shoes," she mumbled to herself, her eyes scanning the room to find where she had taken them off last.

She saw her gold flipflops peeking out from under the bed and slipped those onto her feet, grabbing her keys and her wallet afterward. Once she double-checked that she had everything, Willow headed to the student center, closing the door to her dorm firmly behind her.

The five-minute walk seemed to take ages because all she wanted was to see Tara who was probably already waiting for her. She was always good at being punctual for everything.

Sure enough, as soon as the student center was in Willow's line of vision she also saw her favorite blonde standing right in front of it. She quickened her pace, embracing Tara in a hug as soon as she reached her.

"Hi there," she greeted her playfully, giggling slightly.

"Hi, sweetie," Tara responded before leaning forward and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Are we going straight to the beach or did you want to get something to eat first?"

Willow thought about it for a moment, her face lighting up when she realized what she wanted.

"Can we get ice cream?" She asked excitedly, in an almost child-like manner.

Tara's signature half-smile spread across her face seeing how genuinely excited Willow was getting over something as simple as ice cream.

"Ice cream sounds yummy. Do you have any favorite places around here?"

"The Frosty Frog has really good ice cream," Willow replied. "But there are scary pictures of frogs everywhere. I don't know if it's worth it."

If Tara didn't know Willow as well as she did, she would have thought she was joking about the frogs. However, she knew all about Willow's huge frog phobia and even the thought of the slimy green creatures weirded her out.

"Well if it's got good ice cream then we should go. I promise to protect you from all those scary frogs," the blonde vowed as she reached down and intertwined her fingers with Willow's. "How does that sound?"

Willow smiled sheepishly, embarrassed by her silly phobia.

"That sounds good. You're the best girlfriend ever, you know that?"

Tara's cheeks flushed a light pink color and she shook her head gently.

"That's impossible because _you're_ the best girlfriend ever," she corrected Willow, swinging their interlocked hands back and forth between the two of them as they began their walk to The Frosty Frog.

A few minutes later they arrived at the ice cream shop and Tara felt Willow's grip on her hand tighten as soon as she saw all the little frog pictures hanging in the windows and on the flyers.

"It's alright, Will. They're not real. They can't do anything to you. Just keep in mind how good the ice cream is," Tara spoke softly to her girlfriend. "What do you want? I'll go up and order for us."

"Can I have a small twist cone with sprinkles?" Willow asked, relieved that she didn't have to get any closer to those frogs plastered all over the shop.

"I'll be right back," Tara assured her before approaching the counter.

"Welcome to The Frosty Frog! What can I get for you today, miss?" The young brunette behind the counter asked cheerfully.

"Hi. Could I please get a small twist cone with sprinkles and a small cookie dough flurry?" Tara asked politely.

"Sure, no problem. That comes to $5," the brunette informed her as she punched the numbers into the cash register.

Tara handed her a five and also a single.

"That dollar's for you. Thank you so much," she said with a smile before grabbing the ice cream from the other girl behind the counter. "Have a nice night, girls."

Tara turned around, biting down on her lip to suppress laughter when she saw Willow had turned so her back was facing the shop. No doubt that she was trying desperately to avoid the frogs.

She presented the ice cream cone to her girlfriend, enjoying the delighted expression that instantly came to Willow's face.

"Ice cream!" She exclaimed, wrapping her hand around the cone and biting into the top of it. "So good."

"Only you can pull off the sprinkles around the mouth look," Tara teased.

Willow licked around the perimeter of her mouth, attempting to catch all the sprinkles on her tongue and only half-succeeding.

Tara bit down on her lip and forced herself to look away for a moment. Seeing Willow's tongue going around in circles like that turned her on more than she would ever admit to in public.

"What did you get, Tara?" Willow asked curiously, taking another bite of her ice cream cone.

Tara snapped her head back to Willow, trying to leave those naughty thoughts in the very back of her mind for now.

"Oh, I got, uhm, a cookie dough flurry," she answered. "Do you want to start walking to the beach while we eat our ice cream?"

The redhead nodded, although she was obviously very preoccupied with her ice cream, which was already halfway gone.

In the fifteen minutes it took them to walk to their favorite beach in Sunnydale, Willow had demolished her ice cream cone while Tara still had half of her cookie dough flurry left. The two girls sat down near the shore, letting their feet just barely touch the water. Willow leaned into Tara and rested her head on the blonde's shoulder while she finished her flurry.

"Want a bite, sweetie?" Tara asked her.

Willow sat up for a moment grinning and nodded her head. She scooped a spoonful out of the cup and let it melt in her mouth.

"Wow, that's delicious. You have good tastes," she decided before licking the spoon clean.

Tara let out a sigh when she saw Willow utilizing her tongue once again. She didn't know how much more of that she could handle without going absolutely insane. Willow handed the spoon back and innocently resumed her position, having no idea the effect she was currently having on her girlfriend.

"You alright?" Willow asked, nestling her head into the crook between Tara's neck and shoulder.

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine. Completely fine," she responded, still trying to keep her hormones at bay. "Just happy to be here with you. I like when we get the chance to get away from campus and just spend time together."

"Aww, I like spending time with you too, Tare-bear. If you're done with your ice cream we can walk around a little bit. I know how much you love walking along the shoreline."

Tara smiled and slowly got up.

"I'd like that, just give me a sec to run over to the trash can and throw this ice cream cup out." The blonde lightly jogged over to the trashcan, a couple yards away from where she and Willow had been sitting.

Willow smirked from where she was still sitting and enjoyed watching Tara's leg muscles ripple as she jogged. It was a nice view indeed.

Tara's eyes narrowed playfully when she turned around and saw Willow's lust-filled eyes.

"Just what were you looking at, Miss Rosenberg?" She teased as she pulled Willow to her feet.

"Uhm….." she tried to think up a lie but then shrugged. "You?"

The blonde giggled and wrapped her arms around Willow's neck, pulling her closer.

"You. Are. So. Incredibly. Sexy," she whispered, punctuating each word for emphasis.

Willow's breathing hitched as her brain processed Tara's words. Her girlfriend didn't typically get quite this affectionate with her while they were out in public. She couldn't help but wonder what had gotten into her, but she definitely wasn't complaining.

"So… do you maybe wanna cut this walk on the beach a little short and head back to your dorm?" Willow asked, raising her right brow suggestively.

Tara bit down on her lip and gave a small nod.

"You read my mind," the blonde replied before grabbing the redhead's hand and briskly, very briskly walked back towards the UC Sunnydale campus.

Tara shook the fond memory from her head and turned her attention back to Willow who was stifling a giggle.

"Are you okay? You totally zoned out, Tare. Usually I'm the one with that problem, not you."

"I was just thinking about us. That night we went to The Frosty Frog and the beach came to mind after hearing that song. That was a fun night," she explained, grinning from ear to ear.

Willow smiled back at her girlfriend and nodded, also remembering that night pretty clearly.

"If I remember correctly that night ended with lots and lots of sex," the redhead asserted with a smirk. "Most nights we spent together in college ended that way actually. We need to get back to those times," she teased.

Tara got up and wrapped her arms around Willow's midsection from behind, pulling her close.

"We can start a reenactment of that night right about now if you'd like," Tara murmured before she strategically placed light kisses on Willow's neck.

"Mmm, I'd like that very much," Willow said before grabbing the blonde's hand and pulling her into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind them.


End file.
